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Sunday, May 15, 2011

TSA Still Befuddled

This, you don't want to see.

The Transportation and Safety Authority, which Janet Napolitano wants to unionize, is still institutionally befuddled as to what exactly constitutes a threat.

Case in point, Rageh Almurisi, a young Yemeni man on a flight from Chicago to San Francisco, who was allowed to board despite having no keys, no luggage, $47 cash, two curious posted checks totaling $13,000, and a trove of expired and current state IDs from New York and California. It turns out Mr. Almurisi did have relatives in California, but his travel plans were curiously unbeknownst to them.

People on the plane described Almurisi as sweaty and fidgety. Not so the Federal authorities, who were not the least bit embarrassed by not picking him out before he boarded the plane. "The system worked" is the usual way Napolitano describes hijacking attempts that are thwarted by the frantic actions of the targeted passengers and flight crew. Without breaking their stride, government officials offered they had "not as yet" discovered a motive.

Yemen, a nation at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, has been a focus of U.S. officials because one of the most active branches of al-Qaida operates in the remote part of the country.

A cousin of the suspect described him as an educated, easygoing person who had arrived in Northern California a year-and-a-half ago from Yemen in search of better opportunities.

In search of better opportunities... to do what?

Almoraissi said he could not imagine what may have caused his cousin to act as authorities allege he did on the plane, but said he was certain Almurisi was not a terrorist.

Well, there you go.

He said his cousin did not show an interest in politics and was not intensely religious. "He might have seriously mistaken the cockpit for the bathroom," Almoraissi said. "He's only been on three planes in his whole life."

The AP, they'll believe anything and just write it down... the goofs. Mistaking the cockpit where the pilots sit in the very front of the airplane for the bathrooms that are always off the hall. Simple mistake any happy go lucky Yemeni might make.

Almurisi went toward the cockpit door 30 minutes before the flight from Chicago was supposed to land on Sunday night, San Francisco airport police Sgt. Michael Rodriguez said. Almurisi was yelling unintelligibly as he brushed past a flight attendant.

After interviewing the passengers and gathering their facts, our government authorities characterize what he said as unintelligible? What, do you suppose, was Mr. Almurisi muttering "unintelligibly"?

You don't want to see this either.

She said a woman in a row across from her who speaks Arabic translated that Almurisi said "God is Great!" in Arabic.

Wai, 27, also remembered on Monday that the wife of one of the men who took Almurisi down later said Almurisi was yelling "Allahu Akbar."

Well, maybe he really had to go? I mean, come on, people!

Meanwhile, TSA agents can be found frisking those they get a dander up over, as likely as not to be your grandmother, who anyone with any sense at all would know does not need excess scrutiny.

Recently TSA employees were seen happily frisking a baby while the child's mother held her in her arms. What the hell is wrong with these people?

6 comments:

He is from Yemen, he is young, he is male, he has no luggage to take with him, he has no keys to drive his car or open his home when he gets back, he is carrying multiple IDs, no one in his family is aware that he is flying anywhere, let alone to near where they live... and the authorities were not only unconcerned about allowing him to board the plane, they can't see what might be wrong.

Matteo has a recent post that seems to fit what is going on: Death Before Discomfort -- to the "liberals," it's better that you should die (if this Moslem is up to no good) than that he should be made uncomfortable by extra scrutinty to try to determine whether he is up to no good.

No suspicious odor coming from the diaper?TSA need no reason, comrade. Asking for one earns you the special treatment. Perhaps the baby was leaning Republican. All I do know is that you give likely suspects wide-berth. About the same distance they keep from common sense.